Tuesday, December 30, 2014

History. And.

Mr. Moon is doing something new today which is hunting wild hog. I will see him before midnight, I feel certain.

My brother, White, sent me a picture today which engendered conversation and me getting out the huge old family Bible which I inherited from my father.

Here's the picture he sent me.


Burkett Miller was my great-uncle, and his parents,  White B. and Mary Miller, were my great grandparents. I have a picture of W.B. in my hallway.


He was quite a man and he amassed quite a fortune and his sons went on to do pretty well for themselves. Besides being the main backer of the Miller Park in Chattanooga, Uncle Burkett also founded The Miller Center at the University of Virginia which I take is a pretty big damn deal. However, by the time my father came along (and he was the only child born from that generation), things sort of went to hell and this is why I fondly refer to him as my old, dead, drunk daddy.

Anyway, as I said, I got out the family Bible (whereupon a huge silverfish crawled out and I smashed it) because my grandfather, Vaughn Miller and his brother, my Great Uncle Burkett were the supposed only two children of W.B. and Mary but the births page in the Bible lists another child. 


Neither my brother nor I had ever heard of Austin Gibson and of course there is a strong possibility that the poor little tyke died either at childbirth or soon thereafter. 

Whoever kept the record in this Bible had beautiful handwriting but the details are so vague that it leaves me wanting to know so much more. 


The names Gibson and Vaughn and White and Burkett are very familiar to me (and make me even happier that Gibson was named Gibson) but Annette? Maggie? These names are beautiful as well. 

My brother is fascinated by family history and he and I really should do some research. He's done a lot but I've done none. I do know that bizarrely enough, one of our ancestors ended up in Thomasville, Georgia which is a hop, skip, and a jump from where I live now. His name was General (Something) Vaughn and he had been a general in the Confederate Army (of course) and I probably have all sorts of relatives nearby, probably both Black and White because plantations were involved. I have a copy of a photographic portrait of General Vaughn and my brother is the spitting image of him.



And his sons are the spitting image of him. Genes are strong. 
I moved here out of complete serendipity and there you go. 


I sent my brother all of these pictures as well as this one.


Which, as I said to him, would indicate that we are immortal. 
Good to know.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.


Willy and Lily taking a sunset tour of the yard and proof that Maurice is indeed magical. 

And here's sweet Miss Dove in the coop.


I am going to let her out tomorrow and I am hoping that she and Miss Camellia will hook up as friends again. Camellia is tucked up in the pump house and the chucks are again nestled into the hay in the hen house.

It's been an interesting day, albeit a not-quite-sane one and I slept for two hours this afternoon and golly, I guess I better make supper because Mr. Moon will probably be home at some point and I suppose I need to eat too.

It's interesting to think of my ancestors and I don't even want to contemplate what they would think of me, living here on 2.2 acres, tending chickens.
Frankly, it doesn't matter a bit what they would think of me. I have done my job in passing down the genes and so has my brother. I love my chickens and I love my children and grandchildren and family trees have many branches and roots as well and in the end, it all means not much more than that people have sex and babies result and so on and so forth.

Still, it is interesting but so are chickens. And ducks. And a magical cat.

Love...Ms. Moon


10 comments:

  1. I feel that this will be an avenue I will travel down some too, sometime...when I'm tired of painting! It is something, how we carry all this knowledge of family events but never record it, and then it's just gone. I wish I could write better, get some of the stuff I know down. My mom has done some research, looking for her dad who was an American soldier in Germany and had sex with a German girl, thus my mom. Ends up he was a quite a rash young man and he died in an accident where he was a pedestrian hit by a car. Well, I got that part writ!!! hugs, Carroll

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  2. Family history is fascinating. There are always mysteries and surprises.

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  3. How strange that they didn't record deaths. I don't think that was very typical! I bet if you do some research you could find out what became of these missing links.

    Genealogy is pretty fascinating when you start looking into it, though I always get suspicious of its accuracy once anyone goes back farther than about 1750!

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  4. The older I get, the more interesting family history gets! Old pictures are fascinating, too. And the handwriting. All of it. I just wonder what things were like when someone was writing that entry, or having their picture taken.

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  5. I think it's all fascinating. And I bet you're related to my ex-husband from Tennessee. His middle name was Austin. Wouldn't that be weird? You should also go on Ancestry.com and figure it all out. Another ex-boyfriend of mine is the CEO, I do believe, but you aren't related to him. I don't think.

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  6. I love me some genealogy!! Seriously love it! I think it's because I'm still searching for someone in my family that I can tolerate. Ha! I'm half kidding.
    Anyway.
    Wild boar hunting. What are you going to do if he gets one?!

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  7. Well who knows! We just may be kin. My Great, Great Grandfather was William Owen Gibson. Mostly from SE Ga. I have a Gibson family book going back to the first known coming from England to the NC area, back in the mid 1750's.
    CJ

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  8. Sending you via email what I found on ancestry.com. My 3rd gr grandmother's name was Emeline...if I'd known when having my girls, I would have used it, so pretty. Happy hunting! Xo Sue~

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  9. I cannot believe I found your post! My grandmother and I were just talking about this today.. Her mother (my great) was named Lua Vaughn Walker...she showed me pictures of Margaret Vaughn Gibson,wife of General Tim Vaughn (Rebecca Jane Stephenson Walker my great great grandmother is buried next to him)...absolutely fascinated! Would love to find out more!
    -Amanda Jane Banks

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  10. Amanda Banks- We are definitely related. How weird and awesome is that?

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